Well, I’ve seen enough of the Sunday night opening games to last my entire life. Five years ago was the Texas disaster, and this one came darn close to being just as soul-crushing.
Notre Dame did somehow survive the opener tonight to defeat Florida State and its overwhelming karma boost from McKenzie Milton, 41-38, in a game that looked like an Irish rout a few different times and yet somehow ended with them hanging on for dear life and winning because FSU’s kicker missed in overtime and Jon Doerer didn’t. (If Jon Doerer is good again, like he looked tonight, that would be just super.)
Some disjointed thoughts from a weird one:
Jack Coan might be awesome, and Kevin Austin might be too
We’ll see how good Florida State’s defense ends up being – it’s possible the answer is not good at all – but there was a ton to like about Jack Coan’s debut performance as Notre Dame’s quarterback. He threw for an efficient 366 yards (probably would’ve had more if Michael Mayer hadn’t come up with a weird case of the dropsies a couple of times), and he did it behind an offensive line that’s pretty much inarguably a worse one than any line Ian Book ever had on his side. Sure, he can’t move much and it would be cool to be able to improvise sometimes, but if the guy can keep dropping dimes over Kevin Austin’s shoulder, it’ll work out just fine.
And on that topic, Kevin Austin looked a lot like the guy this fan base has been salivating about for the bulk of the last two years. He only caught four passes, but he showed off some impressive ball skills on his TD catch and some Matrix-type moves on another reception. No question he adds a different dimension to things.
Marcus Freeman has some work to do
When the color guy is repeatedly questioning your defensive play calls and I agree with him, there’s likely a problem. I’m not sure why Freeman was content to give FSU the running game as the Noles repeatedly gashed the Notre Dame defense in the second half, but it was super frustrating to watch. FSU ended up rushing for 264 yards on 48 carries, well clear of five per attempt. A total of 155 on the 47 attempts besides the long TD run early on looks a bit better, but hey, those count too.
It worked out that in his first game as the most ballyhooed ND coordinator hire at least since Bob Davie, Freeman gave up more points than Clark Lea’s unit surrendered in all but one game in three years as DC. There were definitely some fun moments – the front four’s repeated destroying of the FSU offensive line through most of the first two and a half quarters was pretty terrific – but, 38 points.
Week one is week one, but definitely not the most inspiring start. Luckily ND won’t face an offense as dynamic and athletic as the Seminoles’ for a while.
Offensive line lives up to the fear
If you’re wondering, I voted for the offensive line as my biggest concern for the season in our pre-season poll. There was nothing at all Sunday that changed my mind.
The running game was, for lack of a kinder phrase, absolutely craptastic. 65 yards on 35 carries is supremely awful, and frankly a decent chunk of those yards were invented out of thin air by Kyren Williams and Chris Tyree. Pass blocking was a little bit better, but if Coan wasn’t making quick decisions, that would likely have been a problem area too – and he did face his share of pressure in the game.
On top of all that, Blake Fisher got hurt, which forced Michael Carmody into an unenviable position of trying to play LT on the road unexpectedly, with predictable results. It doesn’t sound like Fisher’s injury is crazy serious, so hopefully he will be back before the next time ND ought to be seriously threatened – but even with Fisher, it’s not like the line was road-grading. This is definitely a work in progress.
Don’t execute the team
Brian Kelly, light-hearted when asked about postgame TV quote: “I was kidding. It was tongue in cheek. It wasn’t funny? It’s an old John McKay quote that he used after the game, so I was talking and making a joke about it. Why? It was taken serious? Are you people crazy?”
— Matt Fortuna (@Matt_Fortuna) September 6, 2021
Oh, Brian. If you’re going to invoke the John McKay line about being in favor of your team’s execution, you’ve got to shout him out so people understand what’s going on. But whatever.
This was not fun. Luckily, the next two are against a MAC team (a very good MAC team, granted) and Purdue. This stuff should be fixable. In the meantime, put this weird ND win in the same category as the several other unimpressive wins by top-10 teams this weekend and just be glad we aren’t Washington right now.
Not in this article but worth mentioning: Kyle Hamilton. That INT is one of the most insane things I’ve ever seen an ND defender do.
From the far hash. That’s absolutely absurd. He’s going to cover for a lot of DB shortcomings this year.
I got the biggest smile after this play. The series before, the announcers made a big deal out of Hamilton being in the wrong side of the field because of the QB’s eyes.
It was almost like Hamilton heard the commentary and took it personally. Was worth the 15 yard penalty to see his reaction after the pick.
Ha true. Hamilton did get looked off, but that’s the danger of only having 1 safety high. It doesn’t take much to get him shading to the wrong side of the field. Same thing happened in the Clemson game, right down to the other safety covering the WR getting burned for a TD.
Hopefully they just keep another safety high and it’ll be easier for Kyle to do his thing and at least shutdown half the field, and now occasionally pick off passes on the other side. My goodness that was freaky.
I thought the penalty was asinine. I guess I’m just “get off my lawn” old.
the penalty is textbook. Whenever you take off your helmet and you are not on your own sideline = penalty.
I didn’t mean the call. Obviously it was an infraction.
i’m sorry then I still don’t know what you did mean. Do you mean it was crazy that Hamilton took off his helmet?
Crazy? no. Asinine? yes. He could have celebrated in a thousand different ways without taking a 15 yd. penalty.
Ehh, sprint 50 yards across the field to make an INT that might never be seen again and it isn’t “asinine”, it’s just a natural release of emotion as a reaction to what happened. Even BK said he would have taken his helmet off if he did that.
Most of it perhaps, but I’m not sure about the OL. That’s looking like a season-long issue to me.
With all the talent on the OL, one would think they (or someone behind them) can develop into decent starters.
There had to be somebody out of position on the long TD run. 5 guys in the box and both LBs were heavily shaded to the left side, and FSU ran right with 2 pulling linemen. If that was an intentional defensive formation, I suggest they never run that play again.
Hated Freeman’s 2nd half play calling, and I hated that we got away from pushing the ball downfield in the 4th quarter. This team just isn’t sound enough across the board to go into a shell; we need to stay aggressive and play with what got us there.
Michael Mayer is obviously going to be an All-American, but if he knocks of the drops at clutch times (seems to be a habit), he could be a legit Heisman finalist.
The tackling was poor. That should get better now that 1 game is in the books.
Mike Norvell – how do you not start Milton? If he truly didn’t start because he was hurt, should he really be coming in (and staying in) when Travis loses his helmet? You have a guy who has All-American upside, and you didn’t play him until you absolutely had to. Why?
Kyle Hamilton can fly. My goodness.
1-0 and the schedule looks softer than initially anticipated. Let’s get after it.
Joe Tessitore: stick to Holy Moly. God he was brutal.
Most are. They should be made to have to sit through a replay of their banter. What did Milton have, a sore elbow ?
“I’m not sure why Freeman was content to give FSU the running game as the Noles repeatedly gashed the Notre Dame defense in the second half”
It looked like there was a huge shift in tone once up 38-20, from both sides of the ball. Ultra-conservative when it was too early to do so, with predictably disastrous results. Hopefully lessons were learned.
In theory what Freeman was doing is logical, 3 linemen and trying to keep the ball in front of them since FSU was only in the game at that point due to two big plays, but it didn’t work.
The offensive mentality was somehow even more disappointing, I didn’t like the game Rees called, they were bad on third downs and unreasonably stubborn running it. Might need to be tempered by me, since they scored 41 points and didn’t turn it over, but somehow it was a fairly uninspiring performance despite the results.
A win is a win, at least. Would be nice if FSU can go 8-4 like Louisville so at least looking back on this debacle we can say “well they were better than expected and actually kinda good”. Not sure that’s happening though
The last quarter really delayed the offense vibe I feel. Through 3 quarter’s they looked solid given the limitations on oline, but yeah, that 4th quarter was brutal. Perhaps if they score 10 points in the 4th with 80 yards or so it’s a different tune, but sheesh, It was the FSU offense scrimmage the whole time!
And dear lord, 5 in the box vs a team with 250 rush yards… is that what being the new hotness as a young coordinator is about?
Fingers crossed this win ages well with fsu season…icky icky icky
Agreed there was a shift. Though I don’t know why he didn’t shift back to a 4 man front until OT.
Right now my biggest worry is Freeman.
I realize it takes some time for a new Oline to mesh.That said, there’s too much talent in that Oline group to only average 2 yds. per carry vs. a team that came into this game with big ??? at linebacker. Our RBs had all they could do to get back to the line of scrimmage. We need big improvement up front vs. the next two opponents. If the Oline plays like they did last night vs. Wisc., in three weeks, it will be a miserable Saturday afternoon.
Defensively, I think things are very simple. Tackle better. There had to be a dozen or more plays that FSU gained 7-8 yds. when it looked like QB or RB would be lucky to avoid a loss. I was getting quite perturbed watching that happen play after play.
On the plus side. We have playmakers on offense and a QB that is not afraid to use them. The WRs made some excellent catches. The screen call on 3rd and 17 and the execution of it, was a thing of beauty. Jonathan Doerer looks to have his mojo back.
FSU is apparently the third most talented team on our schedule (of course which doesn’t mean the 3rd best) at #20.
USC #10
ND #12
UNC #17
FSU #20
Wisc. #21
Stanford #23
GT #33
VT #39
Purdue #47
Cincy #53
Virginia #55
Toledo #89
Navy #140
https://247sports.com/Season/2021-Football/CollegeTeamTalentComposite/
there were some alarming things last night such as the run game and defending the run;however, those all seem fixable- there’s talent at oline and dline- this is just a matter of scheme and gaining experience. What was most important was Coan- he looked good. Austin looked good. Just settle down the o line and add a 4th dlineman and we’re good
yea it’s why i think the biggest concern is Freeman.
Coan looked great – esp. his deep balls. And wow Austin looked like a man among boys. I’d like to force some balls to him more.
Definitely need more, WR’s only had 7 receptions. Coan had to deal with pressure but more than once it looked like he had Lenzy open and downfield that he didn’t see or didn’t trust (or once didn’t have time).
I was kinda shocked Davis was a total non-factor. Austin was great when they went to him, but it seemed like he had about 2-3 catches in bunches and then they went away from him for the whole rest of the game.
7 incompletions + 2 drops on 35 passes. Coan was finding open receivers. If better options were out there, film study should help clear that up.
Agreed. I also find it impossible to see the secondary on ABC games. My sense is they zoom in too much.
They also never set the starting teams up for either team. That was strange.
And I can go forever without hearing Tessitore again.
Davis was invisible. Again. We do need a real slot receiver.
Counterpoint, Andy: that was very fun, taken as a whole. Except for giving up an 18 point lead by getting repeatedly gashed in the run game. But pulling one out in Tallahassee against a kid who almost had his leg amputated and made a miraculous return to football? Did that not put things in perspective for anyone? I personally made peace with it in the 4th quarter. If God wanted Milton to get the win, I was cool with it. Though of course his Mother was not. Anyway running game and late defense were brutal, but overall i thought that was a lot of fun.
I mean blowouts allow us to relax, but in a rebuilding year and against a blueblood foe with historically a lot of pride and talent. But we aint Bama and we knew we’d be far from a finished product. I mean is a blowout really more fun than an instant classic? More relaxing but not more fun I’d posit.
I apparently didn’t take as much enjoyment away from it as you did. I prefer to get my heart-stopping football entertainment from non-ND games. Almost everything about that was annoying and gross (capped off by watching Gibbons get helped off the field in OT), and I deleted it from the DVR before OT even started.
So then I’ll put you down as not fun?
I mean your enjoyment of the game–not suggesting I would put you personally on any list of not fun persons.
You can put me down as not fun when it comes to ND football.
I found it “not fun” too. Mostly because I expected a better run game, better defense (especially tackling) and was quite disappointed with both. They easily could have lost a game that should have been a two score victory at worst.
Ok so not fun for anyone but me. F you guys then. Just kidding still friends I hope.
More power to you. I wish I could find a close ND game fun, but the stress just gets to me. Like Rufus, I get my fun from big ND wins, and games where we aren’t involved.